Flora of New Zealand Series

Cephaloziella pulcherrima R.M.Schust., Nova Hedwigia 22: 203. f. 20: 4–7; 21. 1972 (1971). 

Holotype: New Zealand, South Is., Fiordland Natl. Park, track from Lake MacKenzie to Harris Saddle, ca. 3800 ft., Schuster 67-369.

Plants creeping to decumbent, whitish to light green, upper portions (especially median sectors of perianths, nonmarginal sectors of ♀ bracts) rose-red to intense red, relatively vigorous, the leafy shoots 250–400(500) µm wide × 12–25 mm long (150–290[320] µm wide in  subsp.sphagnicola). Branching sporadic, irregular, the branches ventral-intercalary. Stems firm, rather thick, ca. 8–9 cells high, the cortex in 1–2 layers of smaller, quite thick-walled cells, in surface view striolate; medullary cells firm but thinner-walled. Rhizoids frequent, colorless. Leaves vertical, suberect, remote, quite concave but not folded, transverse, inserted to stem midline dorsally, oblong to oblong-obtrapezoidal, ca. 200–250 µm wide × 250–310 µm long, bifid to 0.65(0.8); lobes linear-lanceolate, 6–8 cells broad at base, the lobe apices acuminate and almost invariably uncinate at tip, terminating in a single cell or a uniseriate row of 2(3) elongated hyaline cells, the terminal cell 12–14 × 30–38 µm; leaf margins edentate to vaguely sinuous-dentate, the disc margins entire or occasionally with a small, single tooth that is oblique to erect, never spreading. Abaxial face of leaf usually smooth, very rarely an isolated leaf with a few mammillae or blunt, 1-celled abaxial projections of disc (freely armed in subsp. sphagnicola). Cells rather large, at lobe bases 15–19 µm wide × 24–31 µm long; cell surfaces with numerous medium large, often contiguous, conspicuous papillae. Oil-bodies (Schuster, 1972a) almost homogeneous, glistening, ovoid to spherical, (2)3–6(9) per cell, 3–4 µm to 3–4 × 5–6 µm, rarely 4.8 × 6 µm, not or little larger than chloroplasts. Underleaves present throughout, medium to large, 70–90 × 165–200 µm to 135 × 300 µm, irregular in shape, often asymmetrically bifid to 0.2–0.6, the margins below often with 1–2 teeth; abaxial face usually smooth. Gemmae lacking.

Autoecious, abundantly fertile. Androecia usually terminal on leading shoots, with (1)2–3(4) juxtaposed ventral-intercalary, short gynoecial branches developed from near their base, the gametangia thus clustered and autoecious inflorescence always obvious (gametangial branches not clustered in subsp. sphagnicola); bracts in ca. 3–7 pairs, densely imbricate, the androecium compactly spicate. Gynoecial bracts connate with each other, the bracteole connate on both sides for 0.25–0.35(0.45), forming a tight adherent cup around perianth base, only the lobes erect-spreading; bracts and bracteole ± similar in size and form, 2–3-lobed to 0.4(0.5), the lobes of bracts and bracteoles lanceolate-acuminate, the slender tips usually falcate, the margins sharply serrulate, with apices terminating in 1–2 strongly elongated cells (12–14 × 50–55 µm), the lobe bases often paucispinose with long, 1-celled teeth; nonmarginal cells in distal parts of lobes strikingly elongated, 10–12(14) × 35–48(56) µm (ca. 3–5:1), thick-walled, papillose. Perianth large, bluntly but deeply trigonous in distal half, decolorate at mouth and usually at base, rose-red to deep purplish red between; mouth and area immediately below formed of strikingly elongated cells in contrast to the short-oblong ones lying below, the mouth shallowly lobulate and irregularly crenulate-setulose, with the tapered free tips of the thick-walled apical cells.

Seta with 4–5 very large epidermal cell rows and 4–5 minute, internal cell rows. Capsule with base of each valve formed of 5–6 large, swollen hyaline cells, each longitudinally subdivided by a vertical wall bearing nodular brown thickenings; outer layer of cells oblong, most but not all longitudinal walls with brownish, rather small, remote, well-defined, nodular thickenings, the transverse walls rarely or occasionally with 4–6 small nodular thickenings per wall; inner layer of cells generally with complete to incomplete semiannular bands or (often) nodular thickenings with ± short tangential extensions.

Spores brownish, 8.5–9.5 µm in diam., densely and sharply papillose-vermiculate. Elaters 7–8 µm wide, 2-spiral (medially occasionally 3-spiral).

Comments : Cephaloziella pulcherrima may be readily distinguished from all other New Zealand species of the genus because it bears gynoecia always on abbreviated ventral-intercalary branches which usually arise very close to androecia. The latter are typically on long leafy axes. On this account, the autoecious condition is readily evident.

This vigorous species is unrelated to other Australasian taxa, but rather is allied to the Cephaloziella elachista–spinigera complex of Arctic-subarctic to cold-temperate loci (Schuster, 1980b, 1988). Unlike the members of that complex, the ♀ bracts are conspicuously fused with the bracteole (forming a basal sheath) and the perianth mouth is denticulate to ciliolate. Also, the disc margins of the leaves lack the spreading to squarrose spinose teeth found in the C. elachista–spinigera complex.

Cephaloziella pulcherrima is divisible into two subspecies, as follows.